February 2, 2011

Felt like eons since I last posted. Of course that is some serious exaggeration over there but it does seems that way. As far as the last semester of my Bachelor Degree goes, I say there are some good and bad. Taking 3 modules, 2 of which at this point is really easy for me, probably will be for the whole semester. We’ll take 1 step at a time and see. The bonus is that I’m taking it with one of my best-est buddy, one of few whom I can talk all sorts of nonsense and intelligent issues with. Makes all the horrible 8-am lessons a lil’ bit alleviated. Oh well, something nasty happened in my 3rd module. Maybe not nasty, but something which I definitely do not take pleasure in. Why does this kind of irritating shit happens to me almost every semester. On top of those 3 modules, I actually have my final year project, which is the real deal that’s taking the piss out of me. Terrible terrible stuffs over there that stumped us.

Anyway, I am not mugging too hard btw in case all of you who dunno are wondering why I MIA so long. The usual suspects are games, dramas, movies. Particularly a game is taking a hellavu lots of time outta me. Lemme go thru them quickly. Lets start with the watchables first. Given the long period since my absence, I must say that the list below is shorter than what I would expect, or some people would expect. Mostly it is populated with good shows because well, I have taste 😀 Looking at the list, oh manz, I must have really missed out quite a number of good shows down the road that I had to catch up on, and still plenty more to go.

But alas a certain Dragon Age is putting me off from dramas and movies for time aplenty. Game of the Year 2009, of one of the, anyway. Totally hooked now, and still barely a third through the original game, with expansion to follow. I have already decided to use the easier difficulties to breeze thru the game for the plot now rather than use a mod to give the enemies an obscene amount of life. People who enjoy rpgs should definitely try it if you have not. Particularly to get the feel since Dragon Age 2 is coming out in a little over a month’s time! I’ll leave the Guild Wars ramblings to next time I guess, there will be a chance.

P.S. spent quite some money recently catching up with various groups of friends and having decent food. But I shudn’t go into detail bcos it doesn’t exactly captures interest, and I wanna post this before midnight. You know, this will be my final post before the new Lunar Year kicks in. My resolution is to…

July 19, 2010

Heya I’m back after more than 10 days. Actually this post title might be a bit misleading, but let’s get to that later. I’ve been spending my time recently between some games, 2 dramas and the usual net surfing. The World Cup has already long passed so I guess I don’t need to talk about it too much now. On account of Germany’s showing, I do hope they can scale even greater heights 4 years from now when the aspiring young players start to mature.

Right, what now. Actually I had spent quite some time on Football Manager 2010 due to the fervor brought on by the WC. I decided to pick up a puny team, Crewe, and managed to bring them to the Barclays Premier League in a couple of years. But it starts to get very irritating when all the big clubs start circling around my players like how eagles hunt for their preys. It just gets more difficult when suddenly all my best players are eager to leave for greener pastures. Boo, I shall put it away for now and stop the game. I dunno, perhaps the WC fever had died off. Argentina won Brazil 2014 in my simulation.

Went out last Saturday with my uni clique to celebrate Min Yao’s birthday, which he amazingly and alarmingly forgot about. Had some good Dim Sum at Crystal Jade. Thankfully didn’t order too much food. The girls ate super little and its up to me and Gary to save the day again. We spent a little just over $97 on the meal, for 7 person, which is a reasonable price, but again, the girls didn’t eat much. My very pathetic and lousy estimate says that we ordered over 20 笼/plates (its this long right?) of food. I like the chestnut cake lah, rocks much more than the carrot cake. But alot of ppl never eat before and didn’t try it. I do admit at first sight the colour doesn’t look too appealing. But oh well, it rocks.

Now finally, what is this post title about. Nope I don’t have any dreams to share over here. Rather is has to do with Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Erm I’m currently watching the latest adaptation, once again a China production, of this epic novel / Chinese classic. I kind of already know the entire outline of the plot, though not in as much detail as I wished. So knowing the epic feats that some epic characters will perform, its kind of the longing to embrace their heroic dreams again. Certainly I still learnt alot from this new drama, more detailed about the plot, and maybe some characters. This actually has pretty impressive war and duel scenes where people do not actually seem redundant. You know, alot of fighting scenes in subpar shows where multiple fighters engage in a battle, there are bound to be some wonderful jumping around in the background by some of the fighters while they wait for their turn to be pummeled. I always find that amusing. But so far, I don’t think I’ve seen any of this retarded act now. War is brutal, war is serious, the soldiers fight, for their lives, and honour. No stupid jumping around. And the 1-vs-many duels are always nice to see.

July 8, 2010

July is here! hahahaha. And with it comes quite a number of new stuffs for me. Lets talk about the usual stuff first. Even if you are not an avid fan, you should know that world cup fever is still on. And now that it is going into the final stages, the matches are typically more exciting, though Spain-Paraguay turns out to be pretty crap. Has enjoyed Germany the most, though Paul the Octopus gave an unnerving warning recently.

The big big thing going on from this month onwards is the restructured public transport fare scheme! Been hearing complaints, from the same group of ppl, coz these are the ones that usually talk to me online on a daily basis. Seems like generally, most of our trips become more expensive, and some by a huge percentage spike. Since it is distance based now, those of us using bus trips on the expressways, welcome aboard, we are pwned! I do believe that bus hopping is a reasonable move now for those without concessions if the buses travel along same routes, since the total fare should be the same.

There are only a few places I travel frequently to, and so far I have only spotted 1 trip to be less expensive. And that is to my university, by a mighty 1 cent! I would probably use concession during school terms, but for the sake of illustration, here is an example. My previous route would be to take a certain bus 1 stop before an interchange, and transfer to another bus opposite a certain educational institution, dropping at my school. This move would cost $1.30, and under the new scheme cost $1.33! So where is the 1 cent saving I talked about? Fret not! The power of cost reduction now lies in bus-train transfers, or train-bus transfers, whatever. So at the very start of the journey, I can replace 2 bus stops with 1 LRT stop, and then hop onto my so called first bus, and follow the same routine. That move would have cost me $1.48 previously, but now it stands just at $1.29! See where this is heading? Cross-mode transports ftw.

Now for another convincing example. Yesterday I made a visit to my friend’s home. Here’s the deal. Typically, I would have walked 2 bus stops distance to reach one that has the direct service to his home. That used to cost $1.31, now $1.29. My alternative routes now would be to take a service for 2 bus stops to that bus stop for transfer, old price $1.50, now $1.29! Practically free. The new system presents many opportunities for us to try to salvage the usually increased cost, by coming up with some perhaps weird routes that never came to our mind before, coz those might seem to be expensive. But now hopping is the way forward.

Well, as stated above, I went to my friend’s home. And that is the first time I touched a ps3. So suaku! Me and ken were getting our asses royally owned by jh in ssf4, but I did manage to rake up some wins! Good considering I never played vs games for probably a decade. We also tried GT5 prologue, and of course it wasn’t easy. Again, experience proved to be priceless as jh once again owned us. I may not be the best person to execute flawless driving moves, but generally I am much more aware of quirky shortcuts and possible tools to gain an advantage in games. Me ftw! Finally we looked at the system for ff13. As I don’t own any high end consoles, I must say the graphics and audio are pretty solid, and the battles are fast paced and nifty. Looks like something I would play if I had my own. One thing bothers me though, the Eidolons, more commonly known as Summons, put me in quite a surprise. Probably has something to do with the context of the story, which also makes it that 1 person only has 1 Eidolon… they look… weird. I think it destroys the very essence of those spiritual entities. The Eidolons become more like Transformers… Weird, just weird.

Finally, dom joined us for dinner at Din Tai Feng. Had some xiao long bao, shrimp dumplings, sliced beef, and a main for each of us, which I chose some pork ribs noodles. The food is pretty savory, but of course we are not willing to part with too much $$$, so that was it, not full. We walked around aimlessly for quite some time before going in to Mac for ice cream and some sides. The 4 of us played World Combat in zone-x for some casual fun, with only 1 credit each. Amazingly, amazingly I tell you, it played out kind of in reverse for us. Our real-life sergeant was the first guy to lose all his lives in the game. Dadah… The second guy to die is the one who barely passed his range (live shooting – rifle lah) in the army. Dadah… The next person to KO is the guy who has had serious arm injury problems, and is excused from rifle in the army. Dadah… Amazingly, amazingly I tell you, our last survivor goes to da dom, the PES E elite administrative staff in the army who has no need ever to go outfield or handle weapons. Dadah… What a surprise.

I have not watched any drama since the last update! Oh nos… better start soon after the world cup. Though, I did managed to set aside some time for movies outside of my football manager campaign. The Green Mile is exceptionally thought-provoking and well… remarkable.

June 22, 2008

Well well… Looks like I’m blogging less now that I’m working isn’t it? It probably accounts for 70% of the reason, but not the entirety. (Lets talk about the rest later) Regarding work, it is amazing how the short 3 weeks so far, it was good, much much much more enjoyable than the kind of work I spent doing in the 1.75 years in you know where. Colleagues are nice, and there will be random talks here there on various random topics. The manager is nice too, and sometimes gimme lil’ bit of munchies here & there. The supervisor is nice too, and the person I’m helping is nice too! Ok, there are more females in the dept but that was not the point, hah! Even the guys in there are generally nice, approachable and they don’t treat you like a puny temp staff to be thrown all the shit. Its great to know people remember your names, and I will remember names (if I get to know them in the first place) I’ve been thru many things, and even as a puny temp staff now, calling people by their names still receive great reception. Hey… here is someone who will remember you.

On other news, why am I so busy now? Hahahaha…. Well, I’m re-addicted to DotA. Spent quite a bit of time honing back whatever skills I had in the game, and establishing new mindsets and strategies. Had some fun with my bro 🙂 I’m definitely not a professional gamer. But I think amongst the casual gamers, I tend to always fall above the average. Yea man… I have a knack of learning games. (Sometimes it is also because I have a big ego… which can be a weakness really… I play to win, ’nuff said)

Finally, about Euros 08, the hot topic now eh… For a soccer fan I had been really quiet about this. None of my supported club’s players are left in the tournament… Many of my predictions went kuku… In fact this do not only apply to me. I mean… so many favorites are now out of the tournament… Portugal… Croatia… Netherlands… To be fair, Russia looked like a dark horse ready to pounce, unbelievable from them. That Arshavin looked like a special little player. Lets continue to watch… Will Germany or Spain now have their way on the glorious path, or will more giant slaying await us?

February 4, 2008

Tada! Finished my first legal presentation. Phew. Did an ok job I guess. Hahahaha. But today was so friggin’ cold can… And tutorial venue changed to a colder LT from before. brrrr. Lucky I got preparation! Haha… usually I wun bother with a sweater or jacket or windbreaker…….. But the weather recently like brrrr

Haven been updating for a couple days. So what have I been doing? No… I’m not hiding at home to mug, hahaha. I installed a new game, namely 幻想三国志肆 (ok pardon me… I also feel funny using 壹贰叁肆, but just to give it some flavour, hahaha, coz the plot goes way back to 上古时期). Thats a pic, tada.

Oh no… What am I doing as the term drags closer and closer to test dates and all? Hahaha… And besides the gorgeous graphics and cool features, I think this will prove to be a rather challenging game compared to earlier titles in the series. So any chance of me completing it in a little over 1 week? Definitely not… Chinese New Year like coming le, hahaha. So I might disappear for an even longer time =X

January 19, 2008

Oh no… I have sinned… Now that semester 2 has just started rolling into action, why did I go and start playing a game?! And its a 2005 game at that, hah. And the thing is, I’m actually starting to get addicted. Not many games can get me hooked for long mind you 😛

Introducing 幻想三国志2 (Fantasia Sango 2), part 2 of a series set in an imaginative Three Kingdoms era.

Well, actually in terms of gameplay, there are only a few interesting bits of features, some which you probably cannot find anywhere else, but still hardly earthshaking. What truly captivated me was the brilliance of the plot, time and again. Perhaps, when comparing such Asian medium with the games from western countries, I tend to appreciate the story of Chinese games more.

However, the point now is… I should really be concentrating on my studies, and not finding out ways to attempt a pseudo-perfect run through the game 😀 God save me…

August 6, 2007

Wow, I’m actually bothering to blog regularly now, but i don’t think it will last that much longer as university life starts to kick in. Anyway, I had this FIC today which wasn’t all that great, though the setting is largely impressive. Programme wise… I was about to doze off at every corner, but I guess I did better than the 2 emcees, who both confessed not having turned up for their FIC couple of yrs back.

All right, I’m gonna have this flag day 2mr and all my previous experience with this ain’t too positive. So I’m still kinda reserved about the outcome 2mr. You know what’s bugging me? They are gonna have this nice shirt for us 2mr and it’s gonna be P.I.N.K. I know BizAd is all girls and stuffs, but hey, there are those few rare breeds of us in there too. And heck, my forehead skin is peeling from a mini-sunburn… gonna look less than desirable 2mr.

Enough of uni stuffs now, lets get down to light-hearted stuffs. Recently, I’ve been into this game called Guild Wars, and several campaigns had already been released. The style of play is slightly different from your typical MMORPG and plenty of people actually didn’t quite like the game mechanics. It depends on the individual I guess, but players who enjoy competitive and strategic gameplay should take a look. Thats all for now, haven’t been chionging the game for quite some time.

Disclaimer

Everything written in this blog is my and only my opinions on all sorts of stuff in my life. I do not presume them to be facts and you should not take for granted what I wrote as the undeniable truths.

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The Mirror of Truth

Just another insignificant speck of dust amidst the universe searching for a greater purpose in life. Currently in the hunt.